222

Πύκτης (Pyktes)
(“The Boxer”)

Discussion Meineke III (1840) 610; Kock II (1884) 463-4; PCG VII (1989)
776-7.
Title Timotheus has written a comedy with the same title, while Caecilius
Statius wrote a Pugil. Other titles associated with athletic activites are Επινίκιος
(Epicharm), Άποβάτης (Alexis, Diphilus), Παγκρατιαστής (Alexis, Philemon,
Theophilus), Πένταθλος (Eubulus, Xenarchus) and’IoOpioviKqq (Mnesimachus).
For boxing in ancient Greece cf. Philostr. Gym. 3, 9-10, 11, 12, 16, 20, 29, 32,
34-36, 50, 57-8. For possible reactions of spectators at a boxing match cf. Philipp.
Com. fr. 2.3-4 πύκτη τ’ έπιτιμαν ούδέν έργον μαχομένω, / αύτόν μάχεσθαι δ’
ούκέτ’ έστ'ι ρόδιον “it is not difficult to rebuke a struggling boxer, but it is not
easy to struggle yourself”. Boxers getting a black eye (ύπώπιον) was a common
spectacle; cf. Antiph. fr. 293.1-5.
Content The title suggests a boxer at the center of the plot. Comic athletes may
share typical characteristics, like ‘big eating - small thinking’, which provide good
comic material (cf. Hunter 1983,178, on Eubulus’ Pentathlos). The surviving frag-
ment associates boxers’ punching-bags with parasites’ bellies. This comparison
may be indicative of Timocles’ versatility in combining different subjects within
a play. Parasites, who are a favorite subject in Timocles’ poetry (cf. on frr. 8, 9, 10,
11, 20, 21), are favorably compared with athletes in fr. 8.14-7 (from Drakontion),
since both dine without paying their contribution. For boxers and wrestlers as
laughing-stocks in comedy and in live performances through mimicry cf. Men.
fr. 167.137 (from Kolax) ]Άστυάνακτος· τοΰ Μιλησίου [Άσ]τυάν[ακτ]ος πολλοί
σφόδρα τ]ών κωμωιδιογρ(άφων) μέμν[ην)τ(αι). έγένετο γ(άρ) παγκρατιαστ(ής)
κρά[τ(ιστος) τώ]ν καθ’ αύτόν, ήγω[νί]σατο δ(έ) κ(α'ι) πυγμήι. “... Astyanax; a large
number of comic playwrights have mentioned Astyanax from Miletus. He was
the best athlete of his time in the pancration, and he also participated in boxing
matches”; Ath. 1.19f Ενδικος δέ ό γελωτοποιός ηύδοκίμει μιμούμενος παλαιστάς
και πύκτας, ώς φησιν Αριστόξενος (fr. 135 Wehrli) “Eudicus the clown won his
reputation by imitating wrestlers and boxers, as Aristoxenus reports”.
Scenes including boxing were sometimes represented on stage; e. g. in Ar.
V. 1382-6 (with MacDowell 1971 ad loc.; Biles-Olson 2015 ad loc.), Philocleon
narrates an unexpected reversal in a pankration at Olympia between the older
Ephoudion and the younger Askondas, where the older man did surprisingly well;
at the same time Philocleon suits his action to the story and gives Bdelycleon
a punch-up: Όλυμπίασιν, ήνίκ’ έθεώρουν έγώ, /Έφουδίων έμαχέσατ’ Άσκώνδα
καλώς / ήδη γέρων ών· είτα τή πυγμή θενών / ό πρεσβύτερος κατέβαλε τον
νεώτερον. / προς ταϋτα τηροϋ μή λάβης ύπώπια.
Date Unknown.